OPEN LETTER OF THE GABONESE CIVIL SOCIETY TO THE FRENCH PRESIDENT. LETTRE OUVERTE DE LA SOCIÉTÉ CIVILE GABONAISE AU PRÉSIDENT FRANÇAIS

Open Letter of the Gabonese Civil Society to François Holland, President of the French Republic

Elysée Palace

55, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré

75008 Paris

Your Excellency, the President of the French Republic,

Your election to the French Presidency has been widely welcomed and celebrated by the African people in general and in particular the Gabonese people. Through this exceptional event, we hope for a new partnership between our countries, Gabon and the French government after 52 years of independence, marked by shadowy relations characterized by a seizure of some leaders of the French state on the main instruments of governance in Gabon.

I-Your commitment to democracy

During the presidential campaign that led to your election to the highest state office, you did solemnly pledged to promote and defend democracy. You have publicly proclaimed loudly and clearly your opposition to dictatorial regimes that oppress their people, which are maintained by fraud and rigged elections against the expressed will of the people. And so, Mr. President, you promised to be with the oppressed, to support civil society and democratic oppositions wherever democracy is threatened, and it is the case in Gabon where she is dying!

II-Confiscation of democracy

Mr. President,

If democracy has led a son of Hungarian immigrants to power in France, it is through the sense that the Republic gives its institutions.

To remind you how this desire is a vital expectation for the people of Gabon and elsewhere, the Gabonese residing in France had sent on 12 August 2011 an anathema to the then Prime Minister Francois Fillon on his last visit to Gabon, a visit that was an insult to the Gabonese people who suffer deprivation of their fundamental rights and well-being.

For 44 years our country has faced an archaic political system locked by a clan of incompetents and profiteers who make it impossible for any democratic change through the ballot box.

This system has always operated by fraud, rigged elections, the results of elections are known in advance, the polling list maintained by a partisan administration not to say by a family with orders in favor of the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), one-party state, in power for 44 years, one of the last vestiges of monolithic political systems in Africa, and whose policies are responsible for the bankruptcy and ruin of a country with recognized enormous potential.

In this context, and following the directives of the civil society and opposition, the parliamentary elections of December 17, 2011, took place amid general indifference because boycotted by over 90% of the Gabonese population who refused to vote and thus endorse a mock election fomented by the party-state, PDG whose heir is Ali Bongo after 42 years of the reign of his father. The voting centers throughout the country were occupied by the armed forces under the exclusive supervision of representatives of the party-state, the PDG. Of the 120 seats of MPs in the National Assembly of Gabon, 116 MPs are immediately requisitioned by the totalitarian party, the PDG, and four other seats are shared between other four parties, two parties of the Republican majority, which is to say subservient to the party-state PDG, and two minority parties and dissident of the opposition.

This election, Mr. the President of the French Republic, is indicative of an unprecedented decline of democracy in Gabon with a National Assembly of a bygone era, because 99% composed of representatives of one party, the party in power for nearly 44 years. Moreover, it reflects the refusal by the government of Ali Bongo to adopt international standards of electoral transparency that could ensure the reliability of the vote and the legitimacy of the sovereign people in a democratic state. In the same spirit of contempt for the people, the government of Ali Bongo pledged to introduce biometry to the local and Senatorial elections of 2013. This deception is particularly unconscionable because, we find a total opacity and lack of transparency by the government which does not associate any other neutral expertise and even less that of the opposition and civil society in the setting up of this protocol.

The choice of the company GEMALTO charged to implement the biometric device was done in the complete illegality and violation of the law on public procurement which notifies that such a procedure must resort to a tender open internationally.

We note in this illegal transaction, a fraudulent intention, an act of bribery and overcharging against the Gabonese State conducted in collusion with a French company. For all practical purposes in Cameroon, a country of 22 million inhabitants, the introduction of biometry in the electoral process and civil status from an international tender costing about 7,500,000,000 FCFA. In Gabon, a country of 1.500000 inhabitants, a no-bid process came to a total cost of 14 billion CFA francs to achieve the same technology. No need to be an accountant to ask questions about the inconsistency of this operation in comparison!

Given the involvement of a French company in a case as doubtful, the Gabonese civil society demands that the French Government opens a judicial inquiry to identify the contours of this detrimental scandal.

III-The antidemocratic reforms:

Since the usurpation of power by Mr. Ali BONGO, son of Omar Bongo in 2009, he has demonstrated a solitary exercise of power whose characteristics are:

The reform of the Constitution of 2010 that deprived the Fundamental Law of all her substance and allowed the Chief Executive to concentrate all powers, to exert an hyper precedence over other constitutional institutions to the point that he alone holds the ability to appoint members of these institutions. Moreover, this reform offers no possibility of change and presidential term limits, imaging without surprise, the type of governance of his late father during 42 years of undivided rule or alternative power. It provides even less judicial independence and democratic control of defense and security forces. To this end, the President of the Republic, without going through Parliament may decree a state of siege or state of emergency when it wants to muzzle any attempt to express or assert a fundamental right.

Certainly, the current Constitution of Gabon has been imposed on the people in violation of the principles and objectives of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance which Gabon had signed on February 2, 2010 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by Gabon in 1983. The regime BONGO in Gabon, for more than 44 years has often sprained any form of mechanism trying to render to the institutions their strength which guarantees the rule of law and democracy.

IV-The establishment of a repressive regime

In addition to this anti-democratic reform, Ali Bongo comes off worse by instituting a reign of terror, the violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms, namely:

• The destruction of the homes of low-income populations in Libreville since December 2011;

• The grabbing of the people’s land in rural areas and the planned destruction of hundreds of thousands of hectares of virgin forests for the benefit of Asian companies including the infamous Singaporean company OLAM for the creation of rubber plantations, in violation of international commitments of Gabon in the preservation of environment;

• Torture, arbitrary arrests and degrading treatment in detention facilities and detention centers across the country;

• The brutal police repression and the continuing violence against students;

• The restriction of freedom of expression characterized by numerous bans of media outlets critical of the regime such as “Echos du Nord”, Ezombolo, TV +. Some journalists are victims of lawsuits based on fabricated evidence, this is the case of Mr. Désiré ENAME who had to flee and take refuge in Cameroon;

• The restriction of the action of organizations of civil society and free trade unions who see their activities constantly hampered by the Government: Trade Unionists have seen their salaries suspended in 2011 for calling for best working conditions;

• The dissolution of a national political party of the opposition, the “National Union” for having legitimately and vehemently challenged the 2009 election of Ali Bongo and arbitrary prosecutions against many executives and supporters of that party.

V-Your commitment against Françafrique

During your televised debate with Nicolas Sarkozy and during your first speech to the French people as president elect, we noticed three values: justice, youth and respect for law.

So Mr. President, how would you explain the relationships that would inevitably develop between your democratic institutions and those of a country where leaders do not have your legitimacy?

For the values you defend to be meaningful, such as the strength of institutions and the freedom of citizens, must not first be that those who claim to promote them, the leaders, is credible by showing exemplary conduct as you told your opponent during the debate?

But given the adversarial relationship that the Gabonese regime has towards the institutions of its country and the Gabonese people, what could justify your tolerance to such ignominy as the Bongo dictatorship in Gabon?

The Bongo regime from father to son has used all the presidents of French elected before you to clear itself of crimes, of moral, political, institutional and social debts, and suddenly they (the French leaders) are all presumed or established as guilty or complicit of the pathetic situation that Gabon finds itself in.

Knowing your exemplary morality, Mr. President, were you going to extend the list with your name in the inhuman register of French leaders that protect dictatorships in Africa?

So you committed to ending the Françafrique, this system of shadowy relations, corruption, briefcases which allows some leaders of France to continue to ensure control of its former colonies, to maintain and install in power incompetent and dictatorial regimes under its benevolent protection.

Yes, Mr. President of the French Republic this nebula must be eradicated immediately; the African people expect from you a strong signal, acts of irreversible rupture. On this aspect, you must resolutely refused to endorse unconstitutional changes, marked by manipulation of the fundamental laws for the benefit of African dictators, the presidencies for life, hereditary successions, topical in Gabon, because of falsification of the constitution and the electoral code which lead to the truncated elections which schedule in advance the victory of the one people disavow, in this case Mr. Ali Bongo.

France must defend and promote its core values in the world, and democracy is one of them, to see it finally establish in Gabon.

The position of France should not vary. The same requirements that are imposed on Syria should be consistent in echoing the regime of Ali Bongo who, long before that of Syria, already saw his father Omar Bongo ruled for 42 years by opposing the introduction of the rule of law and inalienable rights.

If the long-awaited change has taken place democratically in France as we, Francophile Africans, had hoped, it is because the wheel of history does not stop. The field of struggle for freedom is gradually expanding in the world, time of change and renewal must be applied to the policy full of paradoxes that France leads in Africa and particularly in Gabon.

VI-Support for civil society and democratic forces

Mr. President of the French Republic, the Gabonese civil society wishes for the establishment of a new alliance with Gabon based on a mutually beneficial strategic partnership between our two peoples linked by a history ancient of two centuries. This collaboration that we want strengthened, to be effective must necessarily take into account the imperatives of democracy, civil liberties, human rights, transparency, in short, good governance.

You said you were committed to supporting and backing the work of civil societies, we sincerely hope that France is more attentive and more active in its support for the Movement "Ça Suffit Comme Ça” whose role as a counter power is vital to democracy in Gabon against an oligarchic, corrupt and authoritarian regime.

VII-The fight against the ill-gotten gains

Mr. President of the French Republic the fight against corruption including international financial crime is at the forefront of your concerns, we want to see France, under your authority, act with vigor and rigor against the ill-gotten gains purchased by Africans Heads of State at the expense of the development of basic infrastructure in their country with the complicity of certain French banks. France must give no protection to African financial criminals and members of their families holding stolen assets in French banks. As such, current and futures judicial proceedings must go to completion independently.

As we pointed out during the visit to Gabon of the former French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, at the end of last year, Gabon is in disrepair for generalized infrastructure (roads, schools, hospitals, housing). The state administration is riddled with corruption. The government contracts are given to members of the presidential family, supporters of the regime and contractors of dubious moral standing. Notwithstanding the foregoing, France should no longer hesitate and compromise with a corrupt regime, therefore, the choice of France must be unequivocal.

If intelligence is still a character that allows humans to prevent violence in advance and use other solutions, then we could avoid that episode for the Gabonese people.

That, Mr. Speaker, is the urgency to be dealt with in Gabon, and not vague notion of co-development often enunciated with "political correctness" by your predecessor after taking office in 2007. It should be rather strong institutions in Gabon than cynical defense agreements with France.

We believe that our two countries will have more to gain if the minds of both sides became devoid of fantasies of neo-colonialism on the one hand, and the other from the syndrome or victimization of Africans blaming France.

Hoping that this call would finally found an ear, we wish you with all our heart, Mr. President, a good five-year period that will see France regain its dignity as a country of noble values, human rights, and consistent with its conception of democracy and the rule of law beyond its borders.

Good luck Mr. President, and long live France in its new projections of the Franco-Gabonese relations!

Done in Libreville, June 4, 2012

For the Gabonese Civil Society:

-Mpaga George, Chairman of the Board of Directors Network of Free Civil Society for Good Governance in Gabon (ROLBG), the first spokesman of the Movement That's enough (241) 07 51 993 2: gmpaga@yahoo.fr

-Marc Ona Essangui, President of Brainforest Coordinator National Coalition International Publish What You Pay (241) 07 29 41 40: ona_essangui@yahoo.com

-Dieudonne MINLAMA MINTOGO, President of the National Observatory of Democracy, second spokesman of the Movement That's enough: (241) 07948719 minlamadd@yahoo.fr

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

While the Gabonese people dream and contemplate, while they wait for events to be imposed upon them; those who really know what our country represents for their piggy bank, are preparing to impose upon us Noureddine Bongo at the head of the country. The same people who swore they would never accept that Ali Bongo become president of Gabon, are once again ready to capitulate to what is obviously a progression towards the induction of Noureddine Bongo to replace his father Ali. Noureddine has just been replaced quietly at his deputy general manager’s position at Olam, without a new official position being assigned to him. Our informants say that following the resignation of the Issozet-Ngondet government, the king of Morocco, Mborantsuo and the French advisors, will develop a succession platform within the political apparatus of the country, allowing Noureddine to have a boulevard leading to the post of president . Meanwhile, they will have to silence all those like Jean Pin…

English version The deal between France and the US about the succession in Gabon Dear readers, we have submitted to our contacts, the reading of the visit made by the French and American ambassadors, to Marie Madeleine Mborantsuo, the President of the Gabonese Constitutional Court. Here is their opinion. 1. This visit was a demonstration that with regard to their African policies, France and the US have resolutely made a deal to help each other in their respective squares of influence. 2. France helped the USA in Libya, and the USA helped France in Mali. France plunders Francophone Central Africa, when the US does the same with the Great Lakes region through Rwanda. 3. France allows the USA to settle militarily in Cameroon and Gabon by having periodical war games with the forces of these countries; in response the USA asks their Rwandan and Ugandan pupils to normalize their relations with France. It's a give and take. 4. But why did these ambassadors visit Mborantsuo? Because for these…